Ex-Mossad chief: Hamas is more prepared for war than we expected

Former Mossad Chief, Yossi Cohen, said if Israel wants to continue its war in Gaza, it must listen to the United States and ensure the entry of humanitarian aid into the besieged Strip.

Cohen added that he has always opposed transferring money to the Gaza Strip, and that Israel now needs to build an “Arab coalition” to manage Gaza’s affairs after the end of the war.

“This aid should not be unlimited. We have to set conditions, as the entire sector has brought the disaster upon itself,” he added.

Hamas, he added, has been preparing for this war for years and the tunnels in Gaza “are much more” than hundreds of kilometres long, “but an underground city, with deep and long bunkers, with a logistical arrangement that allows for greater underground life than we thought.”

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“We fight at the top and they stay at the bottom,” he added.

Cohen said he opposes a ceasefire in Gaza, stressing that the only way to reach a deal to free the prisoners of war is to continue the war effort.

Once the war is over, Cohen said: “We have to deal with it [Gaza] and say what we want to happen next. We have to build something for which the State of Israel is not completely responsible.”

“We need to build some kind of Arab coalition and then a broader international coalition, which will take responsibility, as they did with refugee countries and other war zones,” he added.

“Let us sit in the same room with the United States, Japan, India, China, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and others, and we say to them: Dear friends, we announce that we will separate from this region, and this time seriously.”

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